For 48% of people, the website’s appearance is the No. 1 factor in determining a business’s credibility. But the store also has to be intuitive and easy to use for new users. Not to mention, the page should load quickly as well!

Fortunately, Shopify theme store has plenty of high-quality and optimized themes for you to use. The only thing those pre-made templates can’t offer is uniqueness. 

What if you want something more original? Then you should look in the way of custom Shopify themes built specifically for your brand. Why should you get or (if you have the skills and some free time) create custom shopify theme and how much it would cost you? And in case the task is beyond you, to who should you reach out for custom Shopify theme development? 

How to choose a Shopify theme?

In the realm of e-commerce, your Shopify theme serves as the foundation of your online store, shaping its look, feel, and overall user experience. It’s more than just aesthetic appeal; it involves the shopping journey, the theme’s features, and the site’s performance. Therefore, choosing the right Shopify theme from the 11 free and 115 paid options in the theme library, or numerous external websites, is crucial to maximizing your store’s potential.

Shopify themes wield the power to transform your online storefront in multiple ways. They can modify the store’s features, speed, customization options, and the tools needed for your business. However, the choice isn’t always straightforward and demands a careful assessment of various factors.

For instance, a theme might appear visually stunning on a desktop but perform poorly on a mobile platform, particularly if it’s not an official Shopify theme. It could also be overly complicated, resulting in slow loading speeds, and hampering your customer’s shopping experience. 

To circumvent these challenges, it’s essential to dedicate time to finding the perfect Shopify theme for your store by carefully comparing all the available options. With a myriad of Shopify themes at your disposal, you’re sure to find the one that best aligns with your business needs and customer expectations.

Remember, the right Shopify theme can significantly enhance site performance, optimize user experience, and ultimately drive sales in your e-commerce store. Factor in the impact of theme choice on SEO, mobile responsiveness, customization capabilities, and overall user experience to make an informed decision. 

Choosing or developing the right theme is a vital step in creating a successful and profitable ecommerce.

theme development services for vetsak

What are your Shopify theme design options? 

You have two options when setting up your Shopify store. One is to choose a pre-built free or premium theme coming from the main theme library and later customize it to fit your needs – either through the main Shopify theme or by modifying the main code with the help of CSS, CLI, and Liquid language.

The other option is to hire an agency specializing in Shopify theme development to build a fully custom theme from scratch.

Which option should you pick? Let’s start by looking at pre-made themes.

Pre-made Shopify theme

A pre-made Shopify theme is a ready template that you just have to download and then install in your online store. There are hundreds of Shopify themes to choose from, from free templates created by the Shopify team to paid themes developed by third-party designers. Dawn theme is one of the most popular free Shopify themes – it has enough features for a quick store launch, is mobile-friendly, and is easy to customize through a drag-and-drop builder. 

But while a free theme can help get you started with Shopify, to grow your store, you will need something more – here’s where a premium theme might be more worth it.

advantages of getting a pre-made theme

Advantages of getting a pre-made Shopify Theme:

  • Fast to launch: You can start your new store very quickly as you just have to find the theme you like, download it and then load it inside your store.  
  • Affordable: If you are on a tight budget, you have several free themes to pick from. But even the paid themes won’t break your bank as the most expensive ones cost $350. 
  • All themes available in the Shopify theme store – no matter free or paid – are mobile responsive, making them look equally good on desktops and mobile devices.
An infographic highlighting the drawbacks of using a pre-made theme. Four icons with labels detail the disadvantages: blocks with letters 'A', 'B', and 'C' illustrating 'Basic design and features', a paper with a magnifying glass indicating 'Less unique', a hierarchical structure representing 'Customization is limited', and a bar graph with an upward arrow denoting 'Risk of lower quality'.

Drawbacks of getting a pre-made Shopify Theme:

  • Free themes are all simple looking and have only basic features available. The paid ones are a bit better in this aspect, but since they are made with a broad audience in mind, they are still pretty generic.
  • With all themes publicly available, many other stores will use them – so your store won’t be unique. 
  • Minimal customization option.
  • When looking for themes outside the Shopify theme library, you should be careful as some might be of poor quality. 

Another option you have here is to pick a pre-made Shopify template and then customize them to fit your brand store better. You can either try to add the modifications yourself if you know how to code, or you can ask an agency to tweak your main theme to add new functions or integrate third-party apps.

If you want to do it yourself, you can either use the Theme Editor accessible from your Shopify admin account or edit the theme code through a Shopify CLI (especially if you want to customize Online Store 2.0 themes). However, you can only make minor changes, like changing the font or rearranging the content. 

Here, you need to be very careful when modifying the code not to break any of the theme’s features. You should also remember that if you want to install any theme updates in the future, you’ll have to add the modifications again.

Custom Shopify Theme Development

Pre-made Shopify themes offer a quick and budget-friendly route to launching your online store, but their “one-size-fits-all” nature could limit your store’s functionality and uniqueness. What if you crave an original, custom-designed theme that perfectly embodies your brand and its values?

This is where custom Shopify theme development comes into play. By partnering with a professional agency specializing in Shopify theme development, you can unlock many benefits. 

Custom Shopify theme development allows you to design a unique, responsive, and SEO-friendly online store that not only reflects your brand’s identity but also enhances your customers’ shopping experience. It offers the flexibility to tailor every aspect of your eCommerce site, from its layout and navigation to its color scheme, fonts, and more.

Why should you choose a custom Shopify theme? 

You get a store with a unique design, look, and feel.

Are you okay with your new Shopify store looking and feeling the same as your competitors’ stores? Probably not. Especially with so many online stores popping up every day, making the Internet a pretty competitive place for any e-commerce business. If you want to stay on top, you need an original, unique eCommerce theme that reflects your brand identity and makes your store stand out from the rest. But pre-made templates, no matter how costly, can’t give you that.  

A custom-built Shopify theme, meanwhile is developed from scratch with your brand and specific needs in mind, so it is unique in every way – ensuring no other business on the web will have the same store design as yours.

screenshot of the 'vetsak' online furniture store webpage theme designed by WeCanFly agency. The header promotes free fabric samples. On the main section, there's a close-up view of a 'Two Seat Sofa M Cord Velours' in duck egg color with various fabric options available. Adjacent is an outdoor setting featuring multiple white 'vetsak' seating options on a patio, numbered for product identification. The bottom section includes buttons for viewing products and a price tag of £229 for a 'Big Pillow Plaque' in creme.

source: vetsak case study

Easily recognizable branding

If you want people to remember your brand, then all of your online store’s visual components, such as its color scheme, logo, typography, and images, should show your brand identity and what you have to offer.

With pre-made templates, that is difficult to do – even if you spent time or money on customizing the themes, there’s still a limit to how much you can change. So here, reaching out to Shopify theme development agencies is also a far better option.

After listening to what you want and researching your audience, they can create a new theme for you that takes into account your audience, goals, and values. That way, you can build a much stronger and more memorable brand identity for your store.

Full control over the store’s theme design

Most pre-made themes don’t give you much freedom when it comes to deciding how the theme will look. You can change the colors or add new features through more apps, but not much besides that. And if you ever get the idea of installing a theme update, then your custom-crafted theme will go back to the base look – and you would have to add the changes yourself again.

With custom themes meanwhile, you don’t have that problem. You have complete control over your Shopify’s web design, functionality, or placement – from what colors and fonts you want to use to how your content is arranged or where the buy button should appear. If you’ll want to add new features or change anything in the design in the future, you are free to do it as well – so your Shopify custom theme can grow together with your business.

Faster store load time

Since pre-designed themes are designed for mass audiences, they have only those features that are likely to be useful for most new users. What if you want something more? Technically, you can customize the design or add functionality to your store by downloading extra apps or modifying the theme code. The risk is that all these extra features and options might slow your store down. This is a serious disadvantage – with each additional second in load time, conversion rates drop by 4.42%.

A minimalistic infographic stating 'Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time (between seconds 0-5).' At the bottom, the source is cited as 'Portent, 2019.' To the right, there's a lightbulb icon with a gear inside it.source: Hubspot blog

When you opt for a custom-developed Shopify theme, on the other hand, you don’t have to worry about how fast your new store will load. Since you get exactly the features and integrations you want, you don’t need to download any extra apps or tools for your store. What’s more, your new custom theme will be tested for any possible performance issues and optimized before launch – so you can be sure your store will load as quickly as possible.  

Better usability

What other problems can downloading too many apps for your store or adding one customization too many to your main template cause? For example, inadvertently making the user experience worse by slowing down the website or making the store navigation confusing. And with so many changes done, it might be hard for you to find out where exactly the problem lies or how you can improve how your store works, such as by optimizing your conversion rate.  

Here, it would be a good move to ask the Shopify theme development agency for help in optimizing your theme for better performance. But in some cases, it actually might be better to go with building an entirely new theme from the ground up rather than trying to fix the current theme – especially if optimizing the current theme would take too much time. 

But custom themes have one more benefit here – user experience testing. As a part of testing your website, WeCanFly UX Audit researchers can invite real users to your store and observe their experience while trying to complete a task in your store. This will allow you to find how users really see your store, what problems they might have inside it, and what you should improve – making it far easier for you to have a successful launch later. 

How much will asking for a custom Shopify theme development cost you?

A custom Shopify theme development is a personalized solution for your online store. It will cost more than a pre-made theme, but it will also give you more benefits. The cost depends on:

  • The size of your store.
  • The features you want in your store.
  • The custom graphics, apps, or integrations you need.
  • The time it takes to design the theme.
  • The number of integrations or custom features your store needs.

A custom theme also takes longer to build than a pre-made theme. You have to meet with the Shopify theme development team to discuss your needs and plan the project. Then, they will create a prototype, design the UI and UX, and test the theme. This ensures that the theme works well and matches your brand.

A pre-made theme may seem cheaper at first, but it may cost you more in the long run. You have to customize it yourself, maintain it, and add new functionalities as your store grows. A custom theme, on the other hand, is more scalable, branded, and controlled by you.

Therefore, a custom Shopify theme development may be a better investment for your online store than a pre-made theme.

Custom Shopify Theme vs Premade – which option should you pick?

So which option should you pick? Here are a few questions that should make it easier for you to determine the right one: 

  • Can you invest some time into getting a unique design for your store, or do you need the store up as soon as possible?
  • Are you currently on a tight budget, or can you invest in a more customized experience?
  • If you want a custom or customized theme, do you have the skills and time to design, develop and maintain things yourself? And if not, can you afford to hire an agency to handle it for you?
  • Are there any features or integrations that are absolutely necessary for your brand but not available in any of the pre-made templates?

Overall, starting with a pre-made template is the best option if you are short on time, don’t have a lot of money, or just want to determine how well your store will perform. There are plenty of themes you can find on the internet, and installation only takes a moment, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding the right one.

Alternatively, Shopify custom themes are a great option for businesses with the budget and time to design and build a unique theme in-house or hire an agency to do the work. Then, you’ll have full control over how your theme will look, and you can be sure it will reflect your brand perfectly. 

Develop a unique custom theme with Shopify theme developers from WeCanFly

Having a custom Shopify theme that fits all your brand’s requirements is a wonderful thing. However, customizing or developing your own theme takes time and effort, and it can quickly become overwhelming. If you aren’t confident in your coding skills, lack the time to work on the theme, or want something done from scratch, then our developers at WeCanFly can help you with custom theme development.  

How do we work on Shopify theme development?

We start by meeting you, the store owner, to understand your brand and your design and store integration needs. We can help you with a new design or work with your chosen design agency. We will advise you on how to create a user-friendly and attractive Shopify site with the best tools and technologies.

Next, we will build a Shopify theme prototype, which is a working model of your store. You will see how your new store will look and function. We will also test the prototype with real users and get their feedback.

Then, we will start the development phase, where we will work on the front-end design, performance optimization, animations, and any other features you need. We can also help you with payment methods or integrations.

Finally, we will test the finished store theme on different devices and browsers to make sure everything works well.

Our Shopify theme development services and the technology we use

So what can we help you with? As part of our Shopify Theme Development service, we can:

  • Customize a ready theme according to your requirements
  • Create a custom Shopify theme from scratch
  • Turn a ready design into a working and optimized theme
  • Create a headless Shopify storefront for your Shopify store

Our team has designed stores from top to bottom for over 100 clients, including several household names. Combining stunning web design made with Liquid language and Shopify CLI and incredible user experience and UI, we create ecommerce sites that not only look good but also are intuitive to use and fast to load. 

If you need a headless storefront created, you can count on us here as well – we use a tried and tested combination of React + Next.js + Shopify + Vercel to help us with most of the tasks.  

Overhead view of sections from a Shopify theme designed by WeCanFly agency, showcasing product images, branding elements, and site navigation, laid out on a textured sandy background.

Conclusion

Your store’s design represents your business online. You want it to be inviting, attractive, fast, but also easy to use. So you should take your time when looking for the best theme for your store rather than pick the first pre-made one that “looks good”.

Shopify’s pre-made themes are great for getting started, but if you are serious about growing your business, a custom theme for your brand is the best way to go. Besides being unique, custom themes have all the features you need to make your store load faster and give your customers a great shopping experience. All of these things can lead to better conversion, higher revenue, and a more successful business.